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By Niccolo Machiavelli

I deem it best to stick to the practical truth of things rather than to fancies. Many men have imagined republics and principalities that never really existed at all. Yet the way men live is so far removed from the way they ought to live that anyone who abandons what is for what should be pursues his downfall rather than his preservation; for a man who strives after goodness in all his acts is sure to come to ruin, since there are so many men who are not good.

Friendships that are gained by money, not by greatness and nobility of spirit, may well be earned, but cannot be kept; and in times of need, they will have fled your purse.

We never flee one peril without falling into another.